EP 10. How Many Listings Do I Need Before I'll Start Making Sales on Etsy? | Etsy Tips for Beginners

WYW 5: In this episode I'm answering the Etsy question "How Many Listings Do I Need Before I'll Start Making Sales on Etsy?" I'll walk you through why there's no magic number, what goal to work toward instead, and why celebrating the wins that happen long before the sales is key to staying motivated and building momentum. Have a question you'd like me to answer on a future episode? Submit it at melissacarroll.co/question

FREE RESOURCE: The Road to 100 Listings Tracker

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey there, welcome to the Modern Etsy Seller Podcast and What You're Wondering, the segment where I answer one specific Etsy question in under five minutes. I'm Melissa, a busy working mom with two profitable Etsy shops, and I'm here to help you build yours. Let's get into it. Today's question is how many listings do I need before I start making sales? This question is asked all the time. Probably because there isn't a clear answer out there, but we keep looking, hoping to find one. But there truly is no one number that works across the board. Your first sale could come after just five listings, or maybe it takes 42 listings or 97 listings. It's going to be different for everyone, and it will depend on various factors. Things such as your product type, the niches you're designing for, whether your listings are actually showing up in the search, the experience that you're coming in with, and honestly, a little bit of timing and luck. And I know that's frustrating because it makes it really hard to know if what you're doing is working. It can feel like you're putting in a ton of effort and have nothing to show for it. And it can maybe even feel like you're wasting your time. And that's why so many sellers quit. They stop and then decide Etsy doesn't work or print on demand doesn't work, when in reality they just stop too soon to fairly say that. So I'm going to tell you what I think you should aim for as far as numbers of listings. So I'm going to give you a number. But more importantly than the number is what I think you should be doing on your way to reaching that number. So as a new shop, your first big goal should be to get to 100 listings. And I know, I know if you're starting at zero, that 100 sounds like a lot. Especially if you're trying to find small moments of every day to even fit this in. But hear me out. First, that's the big goal. We absolutely need to make sure that we have smaller, mini goals along the way that we can celebrate. Second, there are ways to get listings up faster. And I'm going to be sharing a bunch of different ways with you throughout future podcast episodes. And third, I'm not saying you won't get sales before 100. You might get one at 10 or 20 or 50. What I am saying is that that is not the goal in the beginning. The goal is to learn and improve and get faster so that when the sales do come, and they absolutely will, they keep coming. So on your way to 100 listings, I want you focusing on five things. You should be focusing on building your workflows so that things become faster. Sharpening your research ability so that you're honing in on what people want. Understanding and applying SEO so that you're showing up regularly in the search. Improving your design skills so you make what people want. And monitoring your views, visits, and favorites so you can see the progress you're making. And I don't only want you to focus on these five things. I want you to celebrate them. We have to acknowledge the small wins to keep motivated. And if all you're looking for are the sales and you're not seeing them, you're going to start to feel like you're failing, and that simply isn't true. So we need to change what a win looks like and then acknowledge all of them. So stocking your shop with listings and products is a win. So celebrate when you hit 25 listings and then 50 listings and then 75. Or better yet, break it down even smaller and celebrate every 10 listings. And actually, this is a good time to let you know that I have a resource for you in the show notes. You can get to it. It's a hundred listings tracker. So the road to 100 listings tracker. Um, it's a free resource, it's just a simple, fun way to track your progress from zero to a hundred. So grab it at melissacarrol.coepisode 10 resource or like I said in the show notes. Okay, so another thing to be paying attention to and celebrating as you're heading towards 100 listings is the speed at which you're getting listings up. So pay attention to it. Time yourself. The first few listings are gonna feel like they take forever. I want you to pay attention to how long they actually do take. And then around listing 15, time yourself. Are you faster? Do it again at 20 and 25. Are you getting faster? You will be, and that's a win. Did you find a keyword with a strong opportunity and then actually create a listing for it? That is also a win. Are you starting to see the views and the visits and even some favorites? That means that people are finding you, so we want to make sure we're celebrating that. Because this isn't just about getting listings up, it's about becoming the kind of seller who knows what they're doing. That does not happen overnight. It happens by doing the reps. There is no magic listing number that's going to unlock sales. In fact, using the number 100 as this goal is simply it's because it's a statement number. It's a strong, clear goal to work towards. You may find that you turn a corner at 75, or maybe you don't hit your stride until 110. But building towards 100 with intention, with a willingness to improve your skills, and without quitting and instead staying the course even when it feels hard, that's how you set yourself up for sales to stick when they start showing up. So keep going because you are building something real. And if you hit one of those milestones and you want someone to celebrate with, then go ahead and send me an email. And I mean that. You can reach me at melissa at melissacarol.co, send me an email, tell me about your wins. I would love to hear about them and celebrate with you. Okay, that's it for this episode. If you have a question you'd like me to answer on a future episode of What You're Wondering, I would love to hear it. Head to melissacarol.co slash question or click the link in the show notes to submit. I'll see you next time.